U-boat Commands

Gustav-Adolf Mugler joined the Reichsmarine in 1931.
He served as a Watch officer (WO) on U-30 (Kptlt. Hans Cohausz) in 1937 (Busch & Röll, 1999).

Gustav-Adolf Mugler commissioned the new Type IXU-41 on 22 April 1939. U-41 joined the initial wave of U-boats leaving in preparation for possible war with England when she left Wilhelmshaven on 19 Aug 1939 (Busch & Röll, 1997). She docked almost a month later, having sunk two small Finnish ships on the return route.

Kptlt. Mugler's second patrol in U-41 was from Wilhelmshaven to the Bay of Biscay. He sank four ships, including the large neutral Norwegian motor tanker Arne Kjøde on 12 Nov 1939 (Rohwer, 1998). On 16 Nov the boat was hunted by British escorts from convoy SL 7 for 20 hours before managing to escape. On two occasions during this patrol Mugler took survivors from sunken ships onboard the boat (seven from Cresswell and 11 from Darino).

Mugler and his entire crew of 49 died when U-41 was sunk on 5 Feb 1940 by the British destroyer HMS Antelope south of Ireland (Niestlé, 1998).

Legend We have a picture of this vessel.(d.) means the ship was damaged.(c.) means the ship was captured (included in ships & tonnage lost).

About ranks and decorationsRanks shown in italics are our database inserts based on the rank dates of his crew comrades. The officers of each crew would normally have progressed through the lower ranks at the same rate.